Good Bye Lenin! - Deluxe 3-Disc Edition DVD | Award-Winning German Comedy Film | Perfect for Movie Nights & German Culture Enthusiasts

Such a wonderfully funny and touching movie about the last days of the East German government, the 1989 opening of the Berlin Wall, and the months leading up to and just beyond the actual unification of the two German states! While we in the USA probably saw nothing admirable in that smothered Communist land, in fact many of its people did -- the general social consciousness of the people, the determination to provide a social safety net, and for all those not in the governing classes a sense of equality and mutual caring.But now we know that was a sham, a lie, concealing one of the most brutal surveillance states since Stalin's death. Want proof, get the even more powerful film, "The Lives of Others," which shows how lovers, friends, married couples, colleagues and even children were forced to spy on their closest and dearest friends and relatives. Watch the presence of the secret policeman in the basement taping the protagonist and his friends and family. Look carefully and you will see the infamous sealed Mason jars, the ones known as scent jars, in which the Stasi sealed articles of clothing, skin swipes, and more. Should they have to send the bloodhounds on the trail of an "enemy of the state", they didn't have to look far to give the dog a sniff of his target!In both movies the office of Erich Mielke, the head of the Stasi is accurate to the last detail. I know; I've been to the Normannenstrasse Stasi HQ (now a museum), sat in the monster's chair, and even taken coffee and a pastry in the senior officers' canteen. If you want to see the face of tyranny, by all means watch both movies. It's a more worthwhile evening binge than any fiction.For sheer fun mixed with a lot of visual history, watch "Good Bye Lenin!" Without fail! For the required antidote, get "Lives of Others" immediately after.The production values of both films are excellent. The mixing of actual footage with that shot for the films themselves is top notch. And for a more historical viewpoint, "Bridge of Spies" should be on your must-watch list. All three will give you spellbound evenings. And you will laugh and cry through "Good bye Lenin."Goodness. I forgot to give a plot summary of GBL. The mother of a small family is stricken with a heart attack just before the Wall opens. Her surgeons and cardiologists caution her children that she must never again receive a psychological shock. By the time she comes out of her coma, East Germany has been bought byWest Germany, East products, including her favorite pickles are no longer available, EasternTV is gone so the family has to produce daily Ossi TV with stories about new tractors and meeting potato growing quotas, and weather reports which stop at the old border. The need to make East German sausages in fake packages, along with the pickles and the need to round up dozens of Trabants so Mama hears and smells the old traffic. But finally Mama gets bored being kept in bed, and demands outings, and Therein lies the unraveling of the whole thing. To tell even more would be to introduce too too many spoilers.I loved all three movies I've mentioned above. But I'm weird because I've walked most of the streets portrayed, had a micro-hand in ending the Wall, and count Berlin as one of the world's most exciting cities.